If poverty means lacking nutritious food, adequate warm housing, and clothing for a family, relatively few of the 35 million people identified as being "in poverty" by the Census Bureau could be characterized as poor. While material hardship does exist in the United States, it is quite restricted in scope and severity.

The average "poor" person, as defined by the government, has a living standard far higher than the public imagines. The following are facts about persons defined as "poor" by the Census Bureau, taken from various government reports:

Forty-six percent of all poor households actually own their own homes. The average home owned by persons classified as poor by the Census Bureau is a three-bedroom house with one-and-a-half baths, a garage, and a porch or patio.
Seventy-six percent of poor households have air conditioning. By contrast, 30 years ago, only 36 percent of the entire U.S. population enjoyed air conditioning.
Only 6 percent of poor households are overcrowded. More than two-thirds have more than two rooms per person.
The typical poor American has more living space than the average individual living in Paris, London, Vienna, Athens, and other cities throughout Europe. (These comparisons are to the average citizens in foreign countries, not to those classified as poor.)
Nearly three-quarters of poor households own a car; 30 percent own two or more cars.
Ninety-seven percent of poor households have a color television; over half own two or more color televisions.
Seventy-eight percent have a VCR or DVD player; 62 percent have cable or satellite TV reception.
Seventy-three percent own microwave ovens, more than half have a stereo, and a third have an automatic dishwasher.
Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave. He has two color televisions, cable or satellite TV reception, a VCR or DVD player, and a stereo. He is able to obtain medical care. His home is in good repair and is not overcrowded. By his own report, his family is not hungry, and he had sufficient funds in the past year to meet his family's essential needs. While this individual's life is not opulent, it is equally far from the popular images of dire poverty conveyed by the press, liberal activists, and politicians.

Of course, the living conditions of the average poor American should not be taken as representing all of the nation's poor: There is a wide range of living conditions among the poor. In contrast to the 25 percent of "poor" households that have cell phones and telephone answering machines, ap-proximately one-tenth of families in poverty have no phone at all. While the majority of poor households do not experience significant material problems, roughly a third do experience at least one problem such as overcrowding, temporary hunger, or difficulty getting medical care.

The good news is that the poverty that does exist in the United States can readily be reduced, particularly among children. There are two main reasons that American children are poor: Their parents don't work much, and their fathers are absent from the home.

In both good and bad economic environments, the typical American poor family with children is supported by only 800 hours of work during a year--the equivalent of 16 hours of work per week. If work in each family were raised to 2,000 hours per year--the equivalent of one adult working 40 hours per week throughout the year--nearly 75 percent of poor children would be lifted out of official poverty.

As noted above, father absence is another major cause of child poverty. Nearly two-thirds of poor children reside in single-parent homes; each year, an additional 1.3 million children are born out of wedlock. If poor mothers married the fathers of their children, nearly three-quarters of the nation's impoverished youth would immediately be lifted out of poverty.

Yet, although work and marriage are reliable ladders out of poverty, the welfare system perversely remains hostile to both. Major programs such as food stamps, public housing, and Medicaid continue to reward idleness and penalize marriage. If welfare could be turned around to encourage work and marriage, the nation's remaining poverty would quickly be reduced. This is, perhaps, the best news about poverty in the United States.

Robert E. Rector is Senior Research Fellow in Domestic Policy Studies and Kirk A. Johnson, Ph.D., is Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Fellow in Statistical Welfare Research in the Center for Data Analysis at The Heritage Foundation.

You can always tell the real poor in America. They are the ones eating too much at the BK, smoking 3 packs of cigs per day, buying new "spinners" for their cars and watching pay-per-view.

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Damn I either must be "stupid" poor because I have basic cable, I don't have a cell phone and I live in a nice and tidy 1200 sq foot home. Am I missing something? Because I haven't realized I'm poor yet. Oh I don't smoke or drink and I hate freaking BK. And spinners are gay looking so besides catching a train to work in the morning like a hobo in a boxcar I'm living the American dream.

Not to worry childrens, with India producing more degreed people willing to live on less than a hundred dollars a week and mainland Chinas manufacturing monster about to really come to life with their Three Gorges Dam project, Ill get to witness my second "Great Depression".

Then these kind of musings will be a sad testimony to Americas sloth. Ive seen citizens of the United States go without eating, for days at a time and with whats happening overseas at this moment, youll get to see it too.

Well in my area the normal annual salary is 75K. I don't make that much, yet I live somewhat simple and I see people who are living off the g with way more material crap than I have. Spending their food stamps on scratch offs and buying beer and smokes. kids wearing designer clothing, now that pisses me off because the liberals are so pro government hand outs and yet a person such as myself working a honest job and doing my part only to be out done by lazy ass people.
Oh yeah I agree we'll see a serious issue over here and all these folk who are living on making the minimum payments are gonna choke. That is going to be quite a sight to witness.

Not to worry childrens, with India producing more degreed people willing to live on less than a hundred dollars a week and mainland Chinas manufacturing monster about to really come to life with their Three Gorges Dam project, Ill get to witness my second "Great Depression".

Then these kind of musings will be a sad testimony to Americas sloth. Ive seen citizens of the United States go without eating, for days at a time and with whats happening overseas at this moment, youll get to see it too.

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Perhaps you can explain to us less enlightened how sucess in India and China will degrade the quality of life in the US.

Makes me wonder if there have been any Republican presidents that have actually done anything about the welfare state since LBJ left the White House?

Hasnt Congress been controlled by the "Fiscally Conservative" folks a few times since Viet Nam?

If I had to make a judgement about doing the most for welfare reform it might be ol BubbaCheeseBurger - in between getting hummers in the Oval Office. No?

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Interesting attempt to deflect the argument but the "Bubba reforms" were GOP initiatives, vetoed by the Schlong Man something like 3 or 4 times before he finally relented. Are you saying that we owe welfare reform to Mr. Erection?

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